The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of glove formed of rubber or plastics material, especially an examination or surgical glove which is devoid of any roll-down preventing beaded edge and contains a structured surface at the cuff region of the glove. The invention further pertains to a novel construction of mold for the fabrication of such glove.
Some of the most important tasks or requirements assigned to an examination or surgical glove are that it firmly seat upon the hand of the user, does not unintentionally roll or slide down along the user's hand, particularly his or her wrist, and also, for instance, snugly encircles and holds down the cuff of the garment of the user. In the case of gloves which are provided with a roll-down preventing beaded edge at the cuff of the glove or with a strip-shaped reinforcement region, this fixation of the glove is to be accomplished particularly by the constriction of the coat arm around the user's wrist in that, at the garment cuff region there is formed a bead from the garment material which theoretically can not be overcome by the wrist portion of the glove.
However, during the course of the improved automation in the fabrication of examination or surgical gloves it was necessary to increasingly dispense with the use of an anti roll-down beaded edge and the complicated application of reinforcement strips. In the case of gloves which are fabricated at the present time without any anti roll-down beaded edge there exists the danger that such construction of glove will roll-down and so-to-speak flip over or upset in the direction of the hand portion, for instance during surgery. Due to the movements of the hand and the coat arm or sleeve such rolled-down cuff region, which now has its contaminated side facing towards the outside, tends to increasingly slide further in the direction of the hand portion. Consequently, not only does there occur an undesired exposure of the coat arm of the user, but also a contamination of the generally germ-free region, since the glove, as soon as it has been put on, is only free of germs at the outer surface. This becomes increasingly more problematic and dangerous since the sliding or rolling-down of the turned-over or upset region of the glove, under circumstances, can occur directly up to the region of the surface of the hand.
It is for these reasons that a glove which is fabricated without any anti roll-down beaded edge or without strip-like reinforcements is clearly more disadvantageous to use than a glove having a beaded edge serving for counteracting the glove roll-down problem, since the turning-over or upsetting of the wrist portion of a glove having a beaded edge can lead to roll-down of the wrist portion which, however, at the latest is terminated at the region of the user's wrist.
To prevent such problematic situation in the case of gloves which are devoid of any anti-roll beaded edge, attempts have already been made to obtain a rigidity of the cuff portion of the glove by imparting a particular configuration to such cuff portion, so that cuff roll-down is rendered more difficult. Thus, for instance, it has been proposed to arrange a plurality of elongated ribs over the circumference of the wrist portion of the glove which are supposed to prevent roll-down of the cuff portion because of their reinforcing action. However, the effect of such type of ribs was much too small, so that in this regard improvements are still being strived for. One such type of improved glove has been disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,624, granted Jan. 9, 1979.
In this U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,624 it has been proposed to solve the cuff roll-down problem in that, in addition to the reinforcement ribs arranged at the cuff region of the glove, there are also formed several ring-shaped ribs which constrict the wrist portion of the glove. The function of these ring-shaped ribs is similar to a beaded edge or a reinforcement band. There is rendered more difficult the rolling-down of the glove along the arm of the user.
However, this effect can only then arise if the elastomeric or rubber-elastic forces correspondingly tightly constrict the glove snugly about the coat arm of the user and hold such glove downwardly against the user's arm. However, an undesirable side effect which comes into play is the extremely uncomfortable pressure sensation which the doctor or other user of the glove experiences at the region of the lower arm or wrist portion. Additionally, by virtue of the coherent or continuous recesses which are present in the lengthwise direction at the inner surface of the glove there is again somewhat reduced the adherable contact or supporting surface of the glove upon the user's coat arm or sleeve, so that there is increased the possibility of roll-down of the glove along the coat arm. Thus, with this construction there still disadvantageously exists the problem of cuff roll-down of the glove and such is not adequately solved.